Here at Mac.Appstorm, we love finding apps that can simplify our work — especially when it comes to Markdown writing apps that make it easier to craft our articles. We’ve looked at 35 unique Markdown apps for the Mac — a series of editors, previewers, and other categories where Markdown can be applied. Adding to the list is 9Muses’ Erato ($5.99). It’s a simple and minimalistic app designed for editing and viewing your Markdown documents side-by-side, following the split-screen concept adopted by apps like Mou and Markdown Pro.

Besides its beautiful and simple design, what sets Erato apart is how it offers additional support for Github-flavoured Markdown syntax and YAML front matter. But while these may be its unique selling points, Erato as a Markdown editor isn’t as powerful as Mou or other more robust editors. And after testing the app, I realised that it still has to iron out a few bugs, particularly with how it converts Markdown to HTML.

If you’re a Markdown fan, then it’s likely that you’re always looking for a new editor with amazing capabilities. As of now, there are many of them on the Mac App Store, though they all differ in abilities and features. Some are just focused on writing (Byword, for instance), while others seem to concentrate more on including unique features that help you to do more than just write. The Markdown language is obviously more than just a tool you’d use for writing once in a while. It’s able to translate what you type into rich text or HTML without the need of a visual editor – and that’s what makes it so special.

Today I’m going to introduce a new type of Markdown editor to you. Instead of focusing just on distraction-free writing as most apps do, this one puts more of an emphasis on a special feature the developers call “combined view”. In addition to this, it has support for custom CSS, meaning that you can customize your document to many extents. The app is called “Valletta” and I’ll explain more on about after the break, so be sure to keep reading.